Wow, what a fantastic day. We got over to SF around 11:00 (had to stop at Woody'sCafe on the way for coffee and a day-old chocolate croissant so we didn't keel over from low blood sugar — we've found we can manage maybe three miles on an empty stomach, max), took BART to Embarcadero Station, hoisted the bikes over our shoulders and climbed up two long flights of stairs immobilized escalators*, and were up onto Market Street and rolling.

It was a gorgeous day, bright & sunny, with a bit of a breeze that made going south on the omigod-gorgeously smooth pavement (Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Oakland anymore) south of the stadium a very zippy whee! kind of thing. We rode from end to end and back again (my bike computer says 19.4 miles total for the day), with stops for food & to enjoy the sights along the way.

Although there were lots of people out on all kinds of bikes, scooters, rollerskates, roller blades, weird tripod-like side-to-side swoopy things, and lots of kids out on their Skuuts and balance bikes, everything was flowing smoothly. We were riding north on the Embarcadero, moving easily along as people passed each other and were passed by others with no trouble... until suddenly the crowd clogged up around an obstruction. We looked ahead to find one car that had somehow made its way past the police and parking department people onto the Embarcadero, where it was now acting as a mobile clot, obstructing everybody.

All of us who had bells were ringing them madly, and as we finally managed to get past most of us groaned audibly, at least the ones who weren't laughing helplessly at the situation.

If there's any kind of close the streets to motor vehicles event in your area, I highly, highly recommend you check it out. It was great. I was in danger of getting bugs on my teeth from grinning so much. Remaining dates in SF this year are April 11 and 18, May 23, June 20, July 11, August 22, September 19, and October 24 — Pirate and I intend to try to make them all.

On the way back, we were clever enough to ride up Market Street to the Powell Street station before heading underground to get onto BART. The station platform was fairly uncrowded, and we were able to get onto a BART car that had plenty of room — we both even got seats. Sure enough, when the car pulled into Embarcadero Station, the platform was full of people with bikes, many more of whom crowded onto the car than really entirely fit... I was glad we were already sitting down.

*The platform elevator at Embarcadero was out of order today. Transitfail, BART, transitfail. Today of all days, when you were expecting I-don't-know-how-many-thousand people, many of them with bikes and strollers, to arrive at Embarcadero Station, you let the elevator be out of order. Boo, hiss.